FILM CLIPS

Walter Addiego, Ruthe Stein

Published 4:00 am, Friday, June 22, 2007

Photo: Ian Rutter

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Amber Tamblyn plays the title character in "Stephanie Daley," opening Friday. Ran on: 06-17-2007
Amber Tamblyn plays the title character in &quo;Stephanie Daley,&quo; opening Friday at the Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco. less

Amber Tamblyn plays the title character in "Stephanie Daley," opening Friday. Ran on: 06-17-2007
Amber Tamblyn plays the title character in &quo;Stephanie Daley,&quo; opening Friday at the Opera Plaza Cinema ... more

Photo: Ian Rutter

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#5 From Left to Right: Timothy Spall as Albert Pierrepoint and Mary Stockley as Ruth Ellis in a scene from PIERREPOINT � THE LAST HANGMAN directed by Adrian Shergold. Photo credit: Ken McKay An IFC First Take release. less

#5 From Left to Right: Timothy Spall as Albert Pierrepoint and Mary Stockley as Ruth Ellis in a scene from PIERREPOINT � THE LAST HANGMAN directed by Adrian Shergold. Photo credit: Ken McKay An IFC First Take ... more

A high school student (Amber Tamblyn of "Joan of Arcadia") is charged with murder after the corpse of a newborn infant is found in a public restroom near where the girl had been on a class ski trip. A psychologist (Tilda Swinton), who's enduring a troubled marriage (Timothy Hutton portrays the husband) and is herself pregnant, tries to dig out the truth of what happened.

This is grim material, but director Hilary Brougher -- working from her own script that won a Sundance award -- examines the lives of these two suffering women without sensationalism or preaching. It's a potent movie that addresses not only our culture's attitudes toward pregnancy, but also the primal fears involved in giving birth.

The heart of the film is Swinton character's probing of exactly what brought on this tragedy, and though the older woman is working for the district attorney, her attitude toward the girl Stephanie is not prosecutorial. The sad circumstances of Stephanie's pregnancy, and the details of her emotional life, are recounted in flashback.

Much of what comes out of the Sundance Lab has a cookie-cutter earnestness, but here, the simplicity and directness of the storytelling win out. While making a point of Stephanie's Christian beliefs, Brougher is clearly not interested in creating a polemic, either pro-choice or anti-abortion. This is drama, not tabloid or talk-radio stuff. Prompted by fears, regrets and social pressures, the women are compelled to ask questions: Whose fault is it that Stephanie became pregnant? Whose fault is it that the psychologist recently had a miscarriage?

The acting is uniformly on a high level. Tamblyn is impressive, and Swinton, as usual, is outstanding. (Swinton also served as executive producer.) The portrayal of Stephanie's home life (her parents are played by Jim Gaffigan and Melissa Leo) is quite affecting.

-- Advisory: This film contains strong language and a scene of intense graphic imagery.

Had Albert Pierrepoint ever been a contestant on "What's My Line?," he surely would have ended up with a hung panel. Pierrepoint was Britain's busiest executioner, hanging more than 450 men and women, including Nuremberg war criminals, from the early 1930s to mid-'50s. He's a creepy subject for a biopic, and "Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman" is a peculiar little film -- grim and disturbing yet perversely riveting in illuminating the exact details that go into administering this method of capital punishment and why he was so splendid at it.

Pierrepoint (Timothy Spall, Wormtail in the "Harry Potter" series) possesses an unerring eye for sizing up a prisoner's neck and estimating how much rope and pressure will be required for a quick and painless end. Like a professional runner, he's obsessed with speed and sets a record of 7 1/2 seconds between whisking his prey from a cell to pronouncement of death.

But after watching one neck after another snap, you start to feel like part of the voyeuristic crowd gathered at public hangings centuries ago.

Part of the movie's problem is a failure to get inside Pierrepoint's head and understand his motivations besides a sense of professionalism and competitiveness with his dad and uncle, who preceded him in the grisly profession. Pierrepoint can walk away from a dead body and go home to his wife, Anne (the brilliant British stage star Juliet Stevenson), or to his local pub where he and a pal he knows only as Tish (Eddie Marsan) bring down the house with their rendition of "Making Whoopee."

The dramatic highpoint of Jeff Pope and Bob Mills' original script should be when the hangman stares through a peephole at his next casualty and sees Tish. But Spall, whose performance is so quietly contained that you begin to wonder whether Pierrepoint has a pulse, displays little emotion.

He's more energetic talking to Anne, who conveniently pretends not to know what her husband does for a living -- it's supposed to be top secret, like 007 -- while plotting how to capitalize on it. Once his cover is blown, she seizes the opportunity to open a pub and parade him around as a curiosity. While masquerading as demur, Anne is made of steel, and Stevenson slowly and subtly brings this out.

The movie continues to be relentlessly glum as Pierrepoint is hounded by groups protesting capital punishment. It's not apparent how director Adrian Shergold could have lightened things up even if he'd been so inclined.

-- Advisory: Disturbing images.

-- Ruthe Stein

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